Posted: November 8, 2022
Rules Governing the Utah State Bar – Comment Period Closed December 23, 2022
USB14-0705. Admission by motion. Amended as of November 7, 2022, pursuant to UCJA Rule 11-105(5). The amendments restore reciprocity language to the rule.
Since the August 1, 2022 amendments, the Utah State Bar’s Office of Admissions has fielded several inquiries about whether an attorney who is primarily licensed and practicing in a non-reciprocal jurisdiction would now be eligible for admission by motion. These questions appear to arise from the deletion of a reciprocity provision in Rule 14-705. Removing reciprocity requirements was never the intention behind the August amendments. Rather, the intention was to simply recognize that the pandemic created opportunities for remote work. As such, these amendments clarify that a reciprocal admission applicant must have been engaged in the Full-time Practice of Law in the reciprocal jurisdiction, whether remotely or in-person, during the relevant time period.
This entry was posted in -Rules Governing the State Bar, USB14-0705.
The rules governing lawyer discipline need to be crystal clear about who is a lawyer and who is not. Those who are not lawyers must be immune from lawyer discipline.
A person who was never a lawyer cannot face attorney discipline.
A person who is currently a lawyer, even if suspended or encumbered somehow, can receive additional discipline.
A person who resigns from the bar and this is accepted must be treated the same as someone who never was a lawyer in the first place.
A person whose license was revoked for not paying the dues also is no longer a lawyer and should be treated the exact same way as someone who was never a lawyer, never a member of the bar.
There should be no possibility of any suspension, sanction, disbarment, or reprimand for violating attorney misconduct rules if a person is not a lawyer currently in some sort of status.
There is no such class as “former lawyers” who can be punished as a lawyer. There is no rational way to impose lawyer discipline on a former lawyer without being dishonest.
This clarification belongs in a definition of what a lawyer is in Utah and who is covered by the Utah discipline rules.
I am suing the Utah Supreme Court in federal court because nonsensical reciprocal discipline was imposed on a lawyer who lost his license in Utah over 10 years ago. In re Bernacchi.
I was disallowed a short amicus brief that explained what a lot of nonsense it is to impose another state court’s discipline on a NONLAWYER in Utah. Please address this issue in your rules at your earliest opportunity.
Andrew Straw, http://www.andrewstraw.com